David Walsh Blog

• By David WalshMarch 1, 2021

  Use Touch ID for sudo on Mac

  The landscape of security is changing quite a bit. We've gone from basic username and password to 2FA, facial recognition, fingerprint recognition, and so on. Hell, my Mac unlocks simply when I have my Apple Watch near by. In the end, I...

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• By David WalshFebruary 11, 2021

  How to Install a NPM Module from GitHub Branch

  In my journey to work more quickly with a project containing loads of dependencies, I've come across a few techniques I've not needed to use before. I previously wrote about How to Push to a Git Remote Branch of a Different Name -- this...

• By David WalshFebruary 9, 2021

  How to Push to a Git Remote Branch of a Different Name

  Git is one of those tools that I've always known just enough about to be dangerous, and usually tend to learn new skills when I'm in a position to truly need them. Shockingly enough it has taken me roughly 15 years of using git for...

• By David WalshFebruary 7, 2021

  Fix “no such file or directory, scandir”

  After 15+ years in the web development industry, and seeing the landscape of tooling change, I've really lost patience with tooling errors. Like...Old Man Walsh™ just wants yarn install to work so he can get on with his work day.One recent error I ran into...

• By David WalshFebruary 2, 2021

  Confessions of a Web Developer XVIII

  It's been quite a while since I've gotten a few things off of my chest and since I'm always full of peeves and annoyances I thought it was time to unleash:Sometimes you need to get out of the cult and stop drinking the Kool-Aid to see...

• By David WalshJanuary 25, 2021

  JavaScript Wake Lock API

  An enjoyable web apps rely on engineers implementing the APIs that cover all of the small things. Those small things sometimes improve performance, usability, accessibility, and the app's relationship with its host system. The Wake Lock API is the latter -- an API...

• By David WalshJanuary 18, 2021

  How to Earn Interest on Bitcoin

  When I was young I remember looking at my bank book and seeing nice interest payments for cash I had in the bank. Fast forward to today and banks are giving essentially nothing for interest -- your money just sits there collecting dust. In an ideal...

• By David WalshJanuary 11, 2021

  navigator.clipboard API

  Interacting with a user's host clipboard is something web developers have wanted for both good and evil purposes. On the good side, it's nice to allow users to easily copy text like wallet addresses or branch names; for evil, copying malicious text that the user...

• By David WalshDecember 29, 2020

  Goals For 2021

  Every year I write a blog post about my goals for the year but I won't pretend this year's post is the same. I mean how the hell do I create realistic goals knowing what 2020 was and what 2021 inherits?! Pandemic, drastic political...

• By David WalshDecember 28, 2020

  Open a Browser Tab with DevTools Open by Default

  Using command line flags is a great way to subtly improve productivity. Whether saving yourself keystrokes or enabling specific features, it's very much worth knowing the application flags available to you.To launch a new tab with DevTools in Chrome, you can use the --auto-open-devtools-for-tabs command...